Fraser Island residents told to ‘leave immediately’ as bushfire threatens town
Residents of Happy Valley, the normally idyllic town on Fraser Island (K’gari), have been advised to evacuate.
Help is expected to arrive from New South Wales today to help battle the major blaze.(Queensland Fire And Emergency Services)
Queensland has looked across the border for help to contain the out-of-control bushfire burning on Fraser Island, with challenging firefighting conditions expected again today.
New South Wales Rural Fire Service’s 737 Large Air Tanker (LAT) will head north to join waterbombing efforts, after the blaze moved dangerously close to the Happy Valley township yesterday afternoon.
The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) issued a bushfire emergency warning at 3.35am, advising residents to “leave immediately” with a very dangerous fire approaching Happy Valley.
QFES said the fire was travelling south and was expected to have a significant impact on the community by about 7:00am.
Happy Valley residents have been advised to evacuate via Eastern Beach and head south to Eurong Resort.
Minister for Fire and Emergency Services Mark Ryan said the NSW-based tanker, named Marie Bashir, will arrive in Queensland today.
“There is a suite of aircraft in the fleet based around Australia which can be deployed to assist with bushfire fighting efforts,” Mr Ryan said.
“[QFES] are using everything that they’ve got to contain this fire to keep people safe and to save property damage from this fire.”
More than 1.3 million litres of water was dropped by 17 aircraft on Sunday.
QFES Commissioner Greg Leach said they would heavily target the fire again this morning to protect the township of Happy Valley.
“In a normal firefight we might drop 100,000 litres on a significant fire, so we’re probably putting 10 to 12 times the amount of water into this fire, so significant aircraft operations,” Commissioner Leach said.
“We’ll use the [737 LAT] to put gel lines of retardant between the head of the fire and the outskirts of the Happy Valley settlement, to try and prevent that fire from impacting on the town.”
Strong winds and temperatures of up to 32 degrees Celsius are predicted on Fraser Island again today as a heatwave continues to scorch parts of Queensland.
“If the wind gets up, we do expect this fire to get quite active again,” Leach said.
“This fire on Fraser Island is a marathon, not a sprint.
“There is no significant rain in the forecast and rain is the only thing that’s going to put this fire out.”
– ABC / Jessica Stewart
